


One Bad Day (Many Good Days)

by montynavarrno



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Multi, Nonbinary Eliza, Trans Alex, eliza and the terrible horrible no good very bad day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 22:05:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10885839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/montynavarrno/pseuds/montynavarrno
Summary: When Eliza woke up, they knew their day was going to be crappy.It all started when they woke up cold because Alex had stolen all the blankets and wrapped himself up like a burrito.





	One Bad Day (Many Good Days)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eIiza (todoro)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/todoro/gifts).



> I said I would start writing this Monday and then finish it on Tuesday and I'm starting this now on Wednesday. On the bright side, the weather outside is perfect for the feeling of this story. 
> 
> This is for Mango whom I love dearly and they drew me art to go along with this story! Check it out on their tumblr: freshmangotea.tumblr.com and also just follow them I love them so much.

When Eliza woke up, they knew their day was going to be crappy.

It all started when they woke up cold because Alex had stolen all the blankets and wrapped himself up like a burrito.

Usually that was cute, but Eliza knew they were going to have a long day already and waking up cold and shivering was not how they wanted to start the day. Especially when they knew that day was going to be filled with upset kids at the group home they were volunteering at. Eliza loved kids, but this particular group home had just been turned down for extra funding from the state and they were not looking forward to having to tell the kids that they wouldn't be getting the updates to their home that they had so been excited about. 

So yeah, waking up cold was not how Eliza wanted to start the day.

To make matters worse, when the Eliza and their boyfriends had gone out shopping they had forgotten to pick up tea, so Eliza didn't have any of their favorite mango tea left. It was raining and cold outside. All Eliza really wanted was some mango tea. They had to settle for some of John's green tea instead. It wasn't nearly as comforting.

* * *

Their commute to work wasn't any fun either. Eliza got stuck on the subway car that just happened to have an arguing couple and their screaming baby. The fifteen minute ride was not doing any favors to Eliza's day.

Upon reaching the group home, they heard screaming, muffled by the door. They thought for a moment that it might have been happy playing screaming, but then they heard the words "Give it back give it back give it back!"

Taking a deep breath, Eliza pushed open the door. One of the boys, Philip Hamilton (no relation to their boyfriend Alexander Hamilton), was screaming at another boy, George Eacker. George was holding one of Philip's toys above the younger and shorter boy's head. Philip was still shouting at George and was nearly in tears.

"George Eacker, give Philip his toy back now!" Eliza said sharply. 

George immediately put the toy down. "I don't see why he can't handle other people touching his stuff," sneered George. "He's messed up in the head."

Philip burst into tears at that point. "I'm not messed up in the head!"

"George, go to your room. You and I will be having a discussion later." 

George groaned, but went off to his room. Nobody dared to mess with Eliza when they got stern like that. They were a terrifying person.

Eliza turned to Philip. "Are you okay if I touch you?"

Philip shook his head. "No."

"Do you want to sit down?"

Philip immediately collapsed on the floor instead of giving a verbal answer. He clutched his toy (a small stuffed rabbit) to his chest and rocked back and forth.

"Do you need anything right now?"

No response. 

"Do you want me to leave you alone?"

There was no response for a few seconds, and then Philip forced out a small "Yes."

"Okay. Come find me if you need me, okay?"

Once again, there was no response. Eliza got up and carefully walked around Philip so as not to disturb him. They walked into the kitchen, where the group home supervisor, Mary Floyd, was sitting at the table with her hand in her hands. She looked up as Eliza walked in. "Miss Schuyler, hello."

Eliza winced. "It's actually Mx. Schuyler today."

Mary sighed. "Sorry. I should have checked. It's just..."

"The funding."

"Yeah." Mary was silent for a minute or so. "There's something else too."

Eliza's stomach felt funny. Mary was obviously upset. "What is it?"

"Philip may not be allowed to stay here for much longer."

"What?"

"My higher ups say that he's a "problem child" and want him to go to a different home, with more restrictions. They think it'll help 'cure his bad behaviors.'"

"He's not a problem child! He's clearly got some undiagnosed issues going on. My guess is that he's somewhere on the autistic spectrum. Putting him in a house with more restrictions is only going to hurt him, not help him."

Mary sighed again. "I know. I've mentioned it multiple times and asked for him to see a professional and get an actual diagnosis, but nothing has ever come of it. I think he also needs to be in a home with fewer children until he learns some better coping mechanisms, but nobody ever listens to my recommendations."

Eliza slammed their fists on the table, frustrated. "How are we going to tell all of these kids that they can't get an update to their home, and then pull Philip aside and tell him that he's going to be put in a brand new home?"

Mary looked at Eliza, tears in her eyes. "I don't know. I just don't know." 

Eliza took a deep breath, trying to calm their emotions. "Okay. Here's what we'll do. I'll go out and get donuts and a movie to try and cheer the kids up. While I'm gone, you tell the kids about the funding. We'll give them the donuts and let them watch the movie. At some point before I leave we'll get Philip and tell him what's up, and assure him that we're going to do everything possible to not let him leave. Okay?"

Mary nodded. "Okay."

* * *

All of the kids were sitting quietly in the living room watching  _Moana_. There wasn't a happy face among them, but at least none of them were crying now. Mary and Eliza were sitting at the kitchen table, quietly discussing when they should tell Philip. That matter was decided for them when Philip came in to get a drink. 

"Philip? Can we talk to you?"

Philip paused in filling his glass with water. "What do you need?"

"We have something we want to tell you. It isn't good news," said Eliza gently.

"What is it?"

"The people who oversee this home want to move you to a different home. One with more rules. They think it'll help you. Mary and I are going to do everything in our power to stop that from happening, okay?" Eliza said, noticing tears rolling down Philip's face.

"Okay," said Philip softly.

* * *

Eliza had really hoped that their day would improve when they got home and saw Alex and John, but instead they came home to a smoke filled room and Alex and John screaming as they desperately tried to simultaneously fan the smoke out of the house and get rid of the burning stir fry.

"Can you guys stop screaming for one minute please? Turn on the fan above the stove and turn off the burner!" Eliza said, gritting their teeth.

"Right," said John.

Eliza groaned at their idiot boyfriends and went to go change out their sopping wet clothes and into their comfiest clothes possible. When they reemerged from the room, Alex and John were standing in the kitchen looking sheepish. 

"Sorry for screaming and acting idiotic," Alex said.

Eliza sighed. "Sorry for snapping at you. It hasn't been a good day. A lot's happened today."

John walked over to Eliza and wrapped them in his arms. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Eliza nuzzled their face into John's shoulder. "Not right now."

"Do you want a hot drink?" asked John.

"Maybe."

"Wanna get the soft blankets and sit on the window seat and cuddle and be disgustingly cute until you feel at least slightly better?" asked Alex.

"Forget the hot drink. That sounds perfect."

Alex made a little noise of excitement and ran off to get the blankets. John decided that he didn't want to let go of Eliza and picked them up and carried them to the window seat. Alex reappeared less than a minute later with the blankets. Eliza and John chose their preferred blankets, and once they were wrapped up Alex joined them with his own blanket. 

They sat in silence for a long time, watching the rain hit the window pane. Eliza didn't keep track of how long they were there, but eventually Alex sank into a doze. Eliza watched him for a while, and then nodded off into John's arms.

* * *

The next morning, Eliza was awakened by the smell of tea. Mango tea. 

After being briefly confused at how they got into bed (until they remembered John carrying them into bed with Alex trailing behind him), Eliza was up like a shot, knocking John out of their way as they sped towards the tea. 

"Eliza! What the fuck my- what are your pronouns?" said John, rubbing his side where Eliza had elbowed him out of the way.

"They/them. I won't answer anymore questions until at least a fourth of this tea is gone."

"I'm glad your so excited about the tea. I figured you'd want some since you had such a bad day yesterday," said Alex.

Eliza stopped sipping their tea to squint at Alex. "We were out of tea yesterday. When did you get this?"

"Honestly? I woke up at like four this morning to pee and then I couldn't go back to sleep so I went to the store to get some breakfast bars because we're out of those too and then I remembered that you were upset yesterday because we were out of your mango tea and so I picked some up for you."

Eliza put down their tea and walked over to Alex, giving him a kiss. "I love you." 

Alex grinned at them. "I love you too."

"Don't I get any love?" complained John. 

"I sucked your dick while we showered this morning."

"That's true love," said Eliza, smirking at John.

"I hate both of you."

"No you don't. You love us just like we love you," said Alex, batting his eyelashes at John.

"We'll especially love you if you make us waffles," said Eliza.

"Anything for love," John grumbled, but he was smiling.

"Are you ready to talk about what was so bad yesterday?" asked Alex, after a moment of him staring at John's ass as John bent down to retrieve the waffle iron from the cabinet.

Eliza snorted. "I love that you can go from staring at our boyfriend's ass to asking me about my shitty day."

Alex shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a man of many talents."

Eliza snorted, then sobered up. "Well, part of the reason my day was so shitty yesterday was because Mary and I had to tell the kids about the funding for their house not coming through, but you already knew that."

"Was there something else?" asked John.

"You remember one of the kids at the home that I talk about? Philip?"

"Yeah. Didn't you say he might be autistic?" Alex said.

Eliza nodded. "But Mary's overseers refuse to get him and get him diagnosed. And she found out yesterday that they want to put him in a different group home that has more restrictions in the hope that it'll make him behave better."

"That's such bullshit! If he's autistic then he needs to be taught coping mechanisms and not restricted more! It'll only make him less able to function in this fucking allistic world," said Alex heatedly. 

"I know, and Mary's told her superiors that. She thinks that he might also benefit from a home with fewer children, at least until he can learn some better coping mechanisms. But they won't listen to her. I really hate my job sometimes."

John had been quietly listening up until that point. "Why doesn't he come live here?"

Alex and Eliza turned to him. "What?" asked Eliza.

"Why doesn't Philip come and live with us for a while? We have an extra room, and didn't your coworker Abigail do that with that girl Susanna? The Deaf girl? Abigail and her husband let her live with them until she was sufficient with sign language and lip-reading to be able to communicate. I think Abigail's husband even got her an interpreter. We can do that with Philip."

Alex had lit up while John was talking. "And it'll be even better for him since he'd be living with me, a fellow autistic person. It'd be good for him to have an autistic role model. I hope he likes pens. I want to show him my pen collection."

Eliza had a smile on their face. "Actually, Philip likes rodents. He says he wants a pet rodent of some sort when he grows up. He has more knowledge about rodents than anything."

"I have never met Philip and I love him already," Alex proclaimed. 

Eliza smiled. "I think you'll like him even more once you meet him."

"Also, I don't know if this will be a conflict of interest, but my friend Benjamin Tallmadge is a licensed therapist with a specialty for helping autistic spectrum kids."

Alex perked up even more. "Did he finally get licensed? Last I heard he had stopped going to school to help nurse his boyfriend Nate back to health after he got attacked and had his neck broken."

"Yeah, he did, but then they both met and fell in love with a physical therapist named Caleb so that freed up Ben's time and he went back and got licensed."

"Why are all of your friends so gay and/or poly?" wondered Eliza.

"We just form a group based on the fact that we're all gay as fuck and become friends because of that," said Alex.

"Fair enough. So, it's decided? I'll talk to my superiors about letting Philip live here until he gets diagnosed and learns some good coping mechanisms. I don't think it'll be a problem at all."

"I can't wait to meet Philip," Alex said excitedly, flapping his hands. "It's gonna be awesome. 

* * *

Philip was quiet on the ride to Eliza's house. He had certainly seemed excited when he had been told that he was going to live with Eliza and their boyfriends, but Eliza suspected that the prospect of meeting new people was overwhelming to him. He was quiet as they got out of the car and got his stuff out of the trunk. He three bags, two filled with clothes and one filled with his books and other things pertaining to rodents. 

When they opened the door, Alex and John were sitting on the couch together, watching TV with the volume on low. They both looked up when Eliza and Philip stepped in. 

John waved at Philip. "Hi! You must be Philip. I'm John, and this is Alex." He pointed at Alex. "Welcome to our home. You can put your stuff in your room right now if you like. Or you can wait. It doesn't really matter to us."

Philip looked up at Eliza. They smiled at him. "What do you want to do, Philip?"

"I- I-"

"We have a pen and paper if you don't really feel like talking right now. Or if you know any sign language we know that too. Although I realize now that you probably would sign to Eliza if you knew sign language since I know they make it a point to tell everyone just in case. Sorry. I'm talking to much. I'll be quieter now," said Alex, looking sheepish.

Philip giggled quietly at Alex's antics. "Paper?" he asked.

Alex leapt up and handed Philip a pen and some paper. Philip grabbed it and quickly started writing something down. He handed it to Eliza when he was done.

_Can I put my stuff in my room but not unpack it yet and then have dinner?_

Eliza read the note out loud so that Alex and John would know what Philip had said. Then they spoke to Philip. "Of course. What would you like for dinner? I think we have some pasta here, or we can order something from somewhere. 

Philip lit up and wrote down something quickly. 

_Can we have pasta with no tomato chunks?_

Eliza laughed. "That's completely doable. This is a strictly no-tomato chunk house. Alex doesn't like them either."

Alex made a face. "They're too squishy to be enjoyable." 

Philip laughed and clapped his hands. "Yes!" he said, pointing at Alex.

Alex lit up. "See John? Philip agrees with me. Tomato chunks are Bad. Bad with a capital b."

John sighed. "I've never disagreed with you about this."

"False. But that's unimportant right now. Philip, do you want me to show you your room?" asked Alex. 

Philip nodded eagerly. He had definitely improved once he was given the option of not talking out loud. 

"Here, I'll grab a suitcase for you." Alex grabbed one of Philip's suitcases, clearly not expecting it to be so heavy. "Oof! What's in that?" Alex groaned.

"That's Philip's book collection," said Eliza.

Alex turned to look at Philip. "A child after my own heart."

"Eliza, you've gotta stop bringing book lovers into this house. Eventually there will be no room for us. We'll be outnumbered by the books," said John dramatically. 

"John, at least half the books in this house are yours," said Eliza, rolling their eyes. 

"And you brought me into this house."

"John, I love you, but shut up and start making the pasta."

"Okay Eliza."

Eliza turned from their ridiculous boyfriend to follow their other ridiculous boyfriend and the child they were housing into the child's new room.

Philip was on the floor running his hands over the carpet. It was very soft and squishy. 

"Do you like the carpet?" Eliza asked.

Philip nodded. "Soft."

"Yeah! It's the best carpet for sensory stuff," said Alex.

Philip frowned and reached for his pen and paper.

_What does that mean?_

"I'm autistic, so sometimes textures and sounds and lights and people can feel really bad for me. This room and Eliza, John, and I's room have this nice carpet so that I can get good sensations and feel better."

_I feel like that a lot too._

Eliza had sat down next to Alex, and was reading the notes Philip passed to Alex. "I've noticed that. If you want to, you can go to a therapist and get diagnosed and learn some ways to help whenever you feel like that. Part of you staying here means that you have to go to a therapist for several reasons. It's okay, a lot of foster kids go to therapy. But whether or not you take the test to see if you're autistic or not is up to you."

_What happens if I am ahtisstick?_

"Here, hold on. It's spelled a-u-s-t-i-s-t-i-c. If you are autistic, then we start learning about how to tell if you're getting overwhelmed and what to do to help you not feel so overwhelmed. If you want to take the test, let me know before we go to see Mr. Tallmadge, your therapist, tomorrow."

_I want to take it._

Eliza nodded. "We'll tell Mr. Tallmadge tomorrow then. Meanwhile, I think Alex has something for you."

"I do! It's called a fidget cube. It's got all these nifty little things on it that you can mess with to help you focus. I have one, and my favorite is the light switch."

Philip took the fidget cube from Alex's outstretched hand, and examined it. And then immediately started playing with the bubble wrap side of the cube. 

Then John's voice called "Dinner!" and Philip was running towards the kitchen in a flash.

* * *

Three months later, Philip had been officially diagnosed with autism and was improving every day. Alex, Eliza, and John all loved having him in the house, and Eliza was in the process of making Philip their permanent foster child. All three of them were secretly hoping to be able to fully adopt him in the future. 

For now, though, they were settling for adopting something else. Tallmadge had pulled Eliza aside one day after one of Philip's sessions, and had recommended getting Philip an animal of some type that he could care for and possibly use for support. He had recommended a dog, but their backyard was currently too small for Eliza to feel comfortable having a dog. It would need room to run and play, after all. And besides, Philip's favorite animal wasn't a dog anyway. 

The four of them were currently in Eliza's car. Eliza was driving, John was in the passenger seat, and Alex and Philip were in the back talking animatedly about the slime they were making back at home. Philip was under the impression that they were going grocery shopping.

He didn't even notice when they parked in the parking lot for the pet store. He didn't notice that anything was off until he walked into the store. "Eliza? This isn't the grocery store," he said, confused. 

"No, it's not. Mr. Tallmadge recommended that you should have a pet of some type to care for and to use for support. He said that you might want a dog, but Alex, John, and I thought that you might want a small animal instead. Maybe a rodent of some sort," they suggested, eyes twinkling. 

Philip gasped. "Can I get a gerbil?"

"You can get whatever you want," said John, smiling. 

Philip ran off to the small animal section without another word. He immediately went to the gerbil cage and gasped softly, motioning his foster parents over frantically. "These gerbils are holding hands!" Indeed, two of the gerbils, a brown one and a black one, were holding hands as they cuddled together in their cage.

One of the store workers came up behind them. "Those two have been like that since they came in a week ago. They're best friends."

Philip turned towards Eliza, eyes wide. "Can I get two gerbils?" 

Eliza smiled at him. "I think it'd be a shame to break up such a good friendship, don't you guys think?"

Alex nodded. "Absolutely."

"Without a doubt," John agreed.

"Sir, we'll take these two gerbils here. Can you point us towards your cages?" said Eliza.

Philip tugged on their shirt. "It has to be big and long, not multiple levels. They also need a lot of places to hide and a wheel for exercise."

"Why don't you lead the way and show me what we need to get?" suggested Eliza.

Philip grinned and took their hand, pulling a laughing Eliza along with him.

* * *

That evening, Professor X and Magneto (John had converted Philip to a comic book fan) were happily running around in their large enclosure. Philip was watching them, very content. He already had plans to start training them to do an easy obstacle course in the morning.

Eliza smiled as they watched Philip play with his new pets. Who could have known that such a bad day would lead to something so nice?

**Author's Note:**

> It's Thursday (almost Friday) and I finally finished this. I'm so proud of myself and I hope you all enjoyed it! 
> 
> Art for the window seat scene (done by the amazing freshmangotea on tumblr) can be found here https://freshmangotea.tumblr.com/post/160388482977/gift-trade-w-montynavarrno-stormy-night-elams-for
> 
> I'm on tumblr @montynavarrno! Leave a comment or a kudos if you enjoyed this!


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